I think it's important for us to understand and think about the meaning of the Three Treasures, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It sounds kind of like a slogan or some kind of superficial way of talking about Buddhism. You know, we hear Three Treasures or Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and we say, well, I know what that is. is the Buddha, is the Dharma, is the Sangha. So we tend to easily pass it over, not think much about it. But it's really the foundation of our practice. And by paying attention to it, and by

[01:28]

getting deeper, more deeply, having some deeper understanding of what is meant by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We have more direction and understanding in our practice. We have a real foundation for our practice. It's okay to come to the Zen Do, you know, occasionally or however you do, and sit zazen and feel comfortable or feel peaceful. But in order for it to really penetrate our lives and in order to have a real foundation for Buddhadharma as the center of our life, it's necessary to have some understanding of Buddhadharma Sangha.

[02:31]

The most important factor in our practice is that we understand the center of our life, where our life is coming from, where our actions are coming from, and what they add up to. What does it mean? What does our life center around and what do we always come back to as the foundation of our life? It's an important question. Even though we may build our life in some way certain kinds of structures, working and family.

[03:44]

It's pretty easy to put together a life built on certain structures. If you go to college, you learn how to build your life, hopefully, on certain kinds of structures. which are in the fields of science and art and economy and so forth. And these are all vehicles, ways, vehicles for not self-fulfillment but for giving our life some form and structure in a way that benefits ourself and other people and is harmonious with the life around us. But those various structures, although they give us that opportunity, unless we have some real center in ourself,

[05:00]

just responding to those ways of life is not enough for us. The real center of our life has to be found within ourself and not through our structures. When we find the real meaning and center of our life, within ourself then we can take on those structures or use them those various ways of life but the most important thing is to know ourself know ourself completely and entirely not just on superficial levels and not just psychologically. So we have various religious practices and religion is a way of the door to finding ourself.

[06:20]

And maybe Religion can be a kind of crutch, you know, kind of dependency and kind of an opiate. Actually, Marx, I think, said religion is the opiate of the people. And I think that what he says is not wrong. So we have to be very careful in religious practice that religion does not become opium and does not become a kind of crutch but a way to find the ultimate reality and to find that ultimate reality within yourself.

[07:27]

So Buddhism is based on Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. These are the three legs which basically forms our fundamental self. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are not something outside of ourselves. Buddha is not the statue on the altar or the man who lived 2,500 years ago. We have to understand that Buddha is our Self. When we really penetrate to our Self, then we find Buddha. So being one with Buddha is the first precept. And it's what Buddhism is all about, what Zen especially is all about.

[08:36]

And all the rest is commentary. All the other presets are commentary and are ways of looking at what is Buddha, what is myself. And the Dharma and Sangha are forms of Buddha. So sometimes we say, take refuge in Buddha, take refuge in Dharma, take refuge in Sangha. That sounds like hiding or coming under the wing, but actually it means being one with Buddha, being one with Dharma, being one with Sangha. not something outside of yourself. Sangha, well Buddha is our fundamental self, which is no-self.

[09:45]

No fixed self is Buddha. That's our true self. Our real self, which is no fixed self. but which is the self of all selves, the true self of all selves, your self and my self. Our true self is Buddha. And when we let go of our small self, we find our true self, which is Buddha. So this is why we call this a treasure. It's not something that you can hoard up, you know, but it's something that's very valuable. And it's not something you can put in a case or put up on a mantle, but something that is always in your deepest heart and mind.

[10:51]

It is your deep heart and mind. and we call it Buddha. You can call it something else if you want. But we say Buddha, and then everybody says, oh, I see. And then Sangha, Dharma, is also Buddha as manifested in our teaching. Buddha manifested as teaching and understanding and the way we do things, the way we live our life, in accordance with that kind of understanding. And Sangha is all people.

[11:56]

You can say, people who come to the zendo are the sangha. In a narrow sense, that's true. In a wide sense, sangha is everyone. But sangha is just myself. When we understand ourself thoroughly, then we realize that sangha is just myself. And when we have some awakening, we realize Sangha is myself. When we come to practice, we don't know exactly why we come. We have various reasons why we come to practice zazen. We like the idea of meditation, and it

[13:02]

calms our mind and we may even get attached to it. But usually we're thinking about ourself. When we come to practice, we usually think about ourself. What am I going to get out of this? What's it going to do for me? That's the first stage of practice which our ego brings us to. Our ego self brings us to practice. So the ego is very valuable and we should respect that ego which brings us to practice. But when we find out who our self actually is after practicing, for a long or short time, then we no longer are so worried about our ego self, whether or not we're getting enlightened, or whether or not practice is good for us, or something like that, or whether it helps us in some materialistic way.

[14:16]

When we have realization, we drop that. It no longer matters to us. And what matters to us is our true Sangha, which is not just ourself. When we really know what ourself is, then we devote our life to ourself. Before we know what ourself is, we devote our life to our ego, so that our life is devoted to maintaining our progress, our self-centered progress. And when we become enlightened, we're no longer concerned about our self-centered progress and we can take care of the Sangha, which is either those people who are practicing or, if possible, a wider sphere of Sangha.

[15:32]

If you become a priest, you have to understand this. even though you may be married or have a family. It's not the most usual thing for a priest to have a family, but as I've said before, it's very common, especially in America and in Japan. So if you are a married priest, then you have to treat your family as Sangha, but also be able to take care of the Sangha around you the best way you can. Sometimes we become ordained even before we understand, before we have understanding.

[16:41]

You don't have to be enlightened to be ordained. initially. When you become ordained, it's called unsui. And unsui, it means clouds and water. It means drifting. It means you cut yourself off from all attachments. And you find yourself in the realm of the life current. The current of life. clouds and water without any direction for your ego. And you devote your life to studying and practicing the Dharma. So you devote your life to the three treasures, to Buddha,

[17:44]

not some Buddha in the sky, but to Buddha nature, which is yourself and everyone's true nature, and to the Dharma, and to the Sangha. And some of us, each one of us has maybe a different kind of attraction Some people are very much attracted or have a propensity to manifest Buddha and those people can practice very well by themselves. They have a very strong sense of practice and they can maintain their own practice and don't need a lot of people around. the kind of person that could go into the forest or in a cave and live off of berries and wild roots and so forth.

[18:59]

That kind of strong personality. And then there's the type who is drawn to dharma, studying the sutras. and organizing things, and more intellectual maybe, but maybe can't take care of themselves so well, and maybe don't have an affinity for people, for others, but maybe can teach, you know, academically. And then there are those who are very social and who are drawn more to the social aspect of the Sangha, taking care of the Sangha and being with people and practicing with people.

[20:09]

And each one of those three it's maybe a little bit rare to find someone who has all three qualities the quality of really penetrating to their essence and finding the independence and can understand the Dharma and preach it and at the same time have an affinity or maybe not an affinity but a great compassion, compassionate nature to be with the Sangha and to practice with people and to help people to practice. So a good priest, a well-rounded priest should have all three qualities. And if the priest doesn't have all three qualities, usually there's one quality that they do have, you know, that is very strong, then they have to cultivate the other two.

[21:30]

So our training is to be able to know what your abilities and propensities are and to train yourself or allow yourself to be trained or both both train yourself and allow yourself to be trained in the other two so that you have a well-rounded personality true personality ability So there are people who become ordained who are monk types and are mostly satisfied just being in a monastery, you know, and doing the monastic practice. And of course,

[22:39]

have that propensity, just your practice, if you practice very well that way, it's very helpful to people. It's not wrong, it's not bad, it's very good. The longer one can practice that way, the better. But some people can't go beyond that stage. And the same with laypeople. A layperson may have just enough impetus to do their own practice, to come to the zendo and sit zazen a couple of times a week or every day, and go to work or take care of their family, and minimally be involved with the sangha, or minimally be involved with studying There are people who, lay people, who practice very well zazen and have a kind of regularity to their practice and a rhythm which is very good which is the most important thing and know how to incorporate zazen into their life and they have very strong practice and it works

[24:14]

but they may not have a propensity for studying. They think maybe studying is boring, or too difficult, too intellectual, and are not inclined to be around people. They don't care whether there's a few people or a lot of people, or if there's something going on. It doesn't matter to them. That's all right. I mean, that's fine. The most important thing for that person is to be able to cultivate in the way they do, to have a very steady practice which their daily life comes out of, which forms a real basis and core for their life. And then there's a kind of type of layperson who likes to study. but they don't sit zazen very much and their cultivation which stimulates their buddha nature is not so strong and that kind of person you don't see so much at the zendo sometimes

[25:44]

But it's a way of practicing but it's kind of weak because there's no presence, practice of presence, of reality to give them a sense of really manifesting Buddha nature. And then there's a kind of person who has a very strong sense of Buddha nature and is very talented. Talented in the sense of could easily have a good practice, except maybe they're too scattered or can't get their life together. But they're big Buddhists. but they don't have either the sangha or the dharma to support their practice but we're always looking for those big buddhas sometimes people are too strong you know big buddhas and but very strong personalities and they can't fit in to a

[27:14]

practice. They can't discipline themselves enough, or get rid of their arrogance. So, they can't participate so well, and they can't practice so well because of that. that kind of person is a big challenge because they have great ability but don't know how to use it or harness it or put themselves into a form that will So in our practice, we have various forms to help people to practice.

[28:23]

We have lay practice. Then we have priest's practice and monk's practice. In this situation here at the Berkeley Zen Dojo, we have lay practice and a little bit of priest's practice. We have lay practice of... because it's the biggest part. And lay people are either people who come occasionally, come periodically or even steadily, very steadily over a long period of time, but don't have ordination. Ordination for a lay person is... a confirmation of your practice in a way to... it's a confirmation from the side of practice to a person who feels that their practice is real to them.

[29:36]

And priest's ordination is for people who feel that they want to, that ordination would really help them to find their way and Bodhisattva, priest ordination for us is called Bodhisattva ordination being confirmed in your Bodhisattva practice which is giving up your self-centered life for Dharma life. Both lay ordination and priest ordination is the same in that respect, except that lay ordination means that you practice the precepts from the point of view of a lay person. And priest ordination means that you practice the precepts from the point of view

[30:47]

of a priest, and it's a little vague as to the difference. There is no difference, but there's a big difference at the same time. At the same time that there's no difference, there's a big difference. Since we don't have... I'm the only priest here. So you only see my example. You can see other examples from other places. Many of them not so good. But... This year we'll have more priests. Fran is going to be ordained as a priest. And... friends in a peculiar position of being a lay person with a husband and two children.

[31:58]

And that kind of ordination, bodhisattva ordination is Originally, bodhisattva practice was practice of laypeople. And arhat practice was the practice of the monks in India. But then bodhisattva and monks became more of a coordination in China. So in our practice, it's not real clear as to layperson, monks, and priests.

[33:05]

And when we give ordination, priest ordination, it's with a spirit of non-attachment. Because, strictly speaking, a priest is a home leader. A monk is a home leader. But the spirit of our coordination is that not so much you go away from home, but that you practice a life of non-attachment So it's very difficult to be a priest, a married priest. It's much easier to be a single priest. But our understanding is very broad.

[34:10]

And we give ourselves a big problem, but we're willing to take on the problem. by being a married priest. It's a compound problem, but we're willing to take on that problem. And I think that's the difference, the fundamental difference. You don't have to become a priest. need to have. And we do have very good examples of people, lay ordained people, who are examples of how to practice as a layperson.

[35:16]

We really need that. But we also need examples of how to practice as a priest. So we have layperson, priest, and monk. In our particular way of practice. A layperson is a layperson, and a priest, you know what that is, sort of. But a monk can be someone who's practicing in a monastery, as an example, that can be either a priest or a layperson. But when they're practicing in the monastery together, there's no distinction. because they're all practicing the same way, same practice. And that person you call a monk, we can use that term. They're not at home, and they have a certain kind of strict practice which

[36:27]

is right there in the monastery. And it's not a worldly kind of practice, strictly speaking, because it's not taking part in the affairs of the world at large. So it's a monk's practice. So when we are ordained, we're ordained either as laypeople or as priests. And a priest can have various kinds of duties. But if you become ordained as a priest, you take on the three treasures. You really take on the three treasures. You really make an effort to reveal your buddhanature, and you really make an effort to understand the Dharma, and you really make an effort to devote your life to the Sangha.

[37:39]

And if you're married, you have a family, the Sangha includes you. All of your practice includes that. So we all have to be careful how we practice and how we take care of ourselves and how we take care of others. If you get overextended in some way, then you're out of balance. So whatever we do, a real practice for anybody, layperson, priest, monk, is how you stay in balance with all of your activities. It's called arranging your life so you can practice. So sangha life means how to balance your life with everyone around you, how to harmonize your life with the people around you.

[38:57]

In this country right now, Sangha is the emphasis. Suzuki Roshi emphasized Sangha more than Buddha and Dharma. And when I say that, I mean, he didn't talk so much about it. You've got to hurry up and get enlightened. That's emphasizing Buddha. And he didn't say, you have to study all these sutras. That's emphasizing dharma. He said, we should learn how to practice together in harmony. When you do that, dharma is there, and enlightenment is there. Buddha is there. So that's really our antithesis, is our sangha, how we take care of our practice and harmonize with everyone so that we can all practice together in a way that helps everyone.

[40:11]

We do, at the Berkeley Zen Do, we do have a kind of semi monks practice of residence. It's a kind of, this is the problem area where the two sides come together. It is called the residence practice. And when we first got the Zen Do, this place, I saw it as a place where a small number of people could practice as residents who wanted to do a lot of zazen and who wanted to practice together in a way that helps, that harmonizes the sangha and allowed them to practice be in a convenient situation to practice.

[41:30]

But it's troublesome because not so many people are able to do that. And that's one of the things that we really have to deal with this year. And to find out how to do that, in a way that works. To offer the Sangha a way to practice as a resident in order to make it more convenient to practice. Not harder, but more convenient. And it means that you can't have as much going on in your life if you do that. If you're a resident and you want to practice as a resident, it means that you want to make practice your focus rather than school, dancing, movies, some other things, you know, lovers.

[42:51]

We don't say you shouldn't have a lover. But if you make lovers your practice, you have a hard time. So it means getting your life together in a certain way so that you can practice in a convenient way. And if your life is too full of other problems, it's better to maybe step outside and practice as a non-resident. But I myself would like to keep the residence practice as a way that people could practice in the way I described. More people who want to sit a lot of times, who want to sit every day, can really engage more and are able to do that.

[44:00]

A lot of people, I think, who are non-residents would really like to be able to do that, but can't because of their obligations. But I see it as a unique opportunity, a good opportunity for someone who really likes to practice that way. not forever, but for some period of time. And so far, the residence practice has not really been a sangha concern. It's been mostly The people who are residents in practice have had a kind of somewhat separate way of dealing with their practice. But I feel that we should open it up, and other people feel, that we should open it up more to dealing with it on a Sangha, complete Sangha level, and seeing how the whole Sangha feels about it.

[45:14]

So that's what we want to do early this year, soon. We don't have so much time for questions. Five minutes. You talked about the Sangha as one's self, as an extension, as a real feeling of one's self extended. And when... it's very easy to talk about long attachments, But when in fact we live together closely as a Sangha, we get into trouble and problems naturally arise, and in a certain way they are a basis. How do you see using mistakes? When somebody in the Sangha, in the midst of Sangha business, makes a mistake, how do you see using that and acknowledging that?

[46:28]

Well, don't we do that? Don't we do that? I think we do do that. That's the song of life in practice, is being able to, from the person's side, to acknowledge your mistakes. And whether or not you do something about it, you know, if you say, you know, you should do something about it, but you don't always know what to do, you know. So acknowledgement is big. if we don't always know what to do about our problems. So a problem, some problems are easily dealt with. But good problems, problems are very valuable because they become the basis for a koan. So a good problem becomes a koan. for a person, you can say, well, I have this problem, and we should get rid of it or solve it.

[47:42]

But for every small problem, there's usually a deeper source. We keep making the same problem over and over again, maybe not exactly the same way, but in different ways it keeps coming up. When we look at a person that we know, we're practicing with, after a year, and we say... and they keep making certain kinds of problems, and we say, mm-hmm. We shake our head and say, mm-hmm. We understand something about that person's problem, which manifests in different ways, right? So that basic thing, we come to look at that basic thing. Problem solving is not necessarily what we're doing. But being able to recognize the basis of our problems as a koan is more what we're doing. And so we don't necessarily try to correct everybody.

[48:47]

But hopefully through our practice together a person will come to realize their own koan. And especially if they have some contact with a teacher who can point it out to them and help them with it. That's more our practice. And if we're always just trying to correct people, then we get into a critical mode. And that's very easy to do, you know. And you can't really help getting into a critical mode at times, you know. So it's a little bit difficult unless people are right there.

[49:53]

That's why it's important for everyone to have a strong practice, meaning being present. Then we can deal with something. But if people back off when they get into a little bit of trouble, then there's no way to touch them. So, you know, one of the ways that we have, one of the best kinds of situations we have is our meetings. because meetings are just that, you know? We have, let's say, a practice committee meeting, and we take care of all this business. And on the surface it looks like we're taking care of business, but what we're really taking care of is how we not only relate to each other, but how we relate to ourself. And our practice is right there. So, In our practice is meeting.

[50:59]

Whether it's one person or another, it's just bowing. Just passing on the pathway, how do you relate to somebody? And how do you see yourself? Basic practice is silent. But then we use talking for convenience. But sometimes it goes the other way around. And we think that we need to do a lot of talking. But if you don't do a lot of talking, then you're forced to relate in some other way, in a more real way. Because talking can obscure it all. And it's difficult to get through somebody's speech, if it's a barrage or evasive. So our practice is really based on silence. Not completely, but one strong side of it is based on silence.

[52:06]

The other side is based on speech. But you don't have to say something to somebody. How do you relate? Passing something to somebody. or passing something to yourself. I don't think I'm answering your question. No, I mean, I appreciate it. And it's very difficult, and I think it's what is at the heart of the residence issue, too. It's at the heart of our life together. Yeah, right. Right. And in this, our particular kind of life, we need time to be together and we need time to be alone. And our lives are very busy, and harmonizing them with all of the various things that we have to do, and trying to do something together at the same time, a lot, you know.

[53:24]

We have to know how to organize our life, not just organizationally, but intuitively, too, so that everything isn't just having its place, but we know how to respond to a situation that's not organized for us. But I understand that what you're saying needs a lot of discussion. It's a lot of thinking and acumen.

[54:25]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ